Sunday 28th December 08

A nice late morning. Boys in good cheer. Generally a lazy day.

However during the afternoon Lorna popped in on the way back from her sister's and I went for a short walk with her, getting back at 5, and she then drove home to the Midlands. I expect we'll see her later this month, as she's visiting her sister again then.

I popped round to our neighbour Debbie who's back from visiting her brother in Windsor. She's had an unusual Christmas and is glad to be in her own house again.

The whole family watched a programme on ITV with a shrunk Nigel Marvin exploring his back garden and saying "Help! I'm no bigger than a bug" which was relatively good but not brilliant.

Soup for tea... I'd made the reddest soup possible, with tomatoes, red peppers and beetroot, and it was lovely. Had this with a pastie, and a cabbage and cashew nut thing which Gill made, plus some left over baked beans. Tasty!

Fairly quiet evening.... watched some telly, played Scrabble and answered composting questions on Facebook. Bed by 2am.

Friday 11th July 08

I took the children to school... my buckled front wheel still went round, but with a weird noise, so I carried on with what I had arranged to do, which was to continue down to Fulford and meet up with Scott the Scout leader, who was working with a team of volunteers at the Fulford Scout Hall, behind Fulford Social Hall, to 'do' the garden, and had requested my pro-composting, anti driving-stuff-around knowledge, so that was good to be able to help them to decide to have a wild area/composting area.

Then went to Cycle Heaven to get them to sort out my wheel... which they'll rebuild. Then came back home on one of their lovely 'sit up and beg' bikes, and got ready to go to the nearby Catholic School who have booked me to do two one-hour shows. A 'fun' based one for their Reception group and for the older ones, aged 5-7, a circus show/workshop with a smattering of science and maths. I would have cycled had I got my own bike, and would have walked had it not been raining... but rang a taxi because I didn't want everything to get wet and wanted to get there in good time...

The shows went like a dream! The audiences were fantastic and we all had a brilliant time...

I walked back as it wasn't raining too hard, and got back shortly before Gill and the boys.

I had an early tea, went down to Cycle Heaven to pick up my bike... which had got a new wheel and repaired brakes, quite an expensive fall, will have to be more careful when collecting aluminium cans! So came back via a deli on Bishopthorpe Road for goats cheese for Gill, and Country Fresh for potatoes and compostables, and got home soon after 6.

Then went to the Greenspeak meeting which was about carbon footprinting. Ellie Dawkins from the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York did the presentation, talking through what it is and the different definitions, how it's measured and what the results are, for countries, individuals, regions, socio-ecomonic groups, etc. She showed us some distorted maps from a website called Worldmapper, which were very revealing.. specifically toy exports and toy imports, as examples of the inequalities. Carbon calculators were discussed, and policy connected with cutting carbon footprints, and economic issues including something called price elasticity, which is how much increasing prices of different goods affect behaviour... ie some things are very sensitive to price increases, but others are relatively unaffected. It was noted that recently, car use had dropped noticeably due to the increasing cost of fuel.

Thursday 17th January 08

A good day as went into town after persuading Gill to come back to bed, and got my prescription, paid the gas bill, put a cheque in (the compost provided for Caroline was rewarded by a donation of £20!) and then went to visit the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre on George Hudson St, to find out about External Wall Insulation suitable for solid walls like our 1930's house has. They suggested going on the National Insulation Association website, and from there I emailed a dozen firms to see what they offered and how much it would cost.

When I got back, Gill had gone to the podiatrist with her painful feet, and I spent at least an hour helping the Castle Howard Arboretum with their composting area display boards, which have been written up initially, and needed a good going through to make them better.... and I'd given some advice before so they'd come back to me for more. Well it's free advice from an enthusiastic expert who will drop everything to help promote composting, so I was glad to do it!

Gill got our youngest from school at 3.15 as the eldest has Drama Club til 4.15. I got him home, he'd had a really good time and he tried to explain all about the things they did whilst cycling home.

A noisy and over excited evening as our eldest's friend who's moved to Leamington Spa phoned him, and this was a rare event, for him to get a phone call.

I enjoyed a good meal of spaghetti squash and other bits. No-one else is that keen on it.